Monday, May 23, 2011

Grocery Budget Cut

I mentioned before that I am trying to cut down the costs of groceries because I really spend too much money while only feeding two people! I have become addicted to the TLC show "Extreme Couponing" - I also made the mistake of asking Steve to watch it with me; now he thinks I definitely spend too much money on groceries and we should be able to eat on $10.00 a week or something. Okay, that is an over exaggeration but you get the point.

I have started to cut coupons and have already seen some savings (I only cut coupons for items I already use). I am not trying to spend $5.00 on $500.00 worth of groceries like those people on the T.V. show nor do I want to stock up on items that I don't already use. However, the next step in my process is to cut our budget in half. I currently spent about $100.00 a week at Kroger (the grocery store I use) and I am going to cut it back to $50.00. Some of you may read this and think WOW, how do you spend $100.00 on just two people while others may feel that $50.00 is too little. The latter is how I felt until I stopped by Money Saving Mom. The author of this amazing blog is Crystal and she has started a weekly video series to help beginners like myself get started on saving money. Her series called 31 weeks To a Better Grocery Budget. The first week she covers attitude! I thought to myself "how in the world is attitude going to save me money at the store?" Well, she's completely right! If you think you can't do it then you can't and if you keep making excuses (like I have been) then you won't try and again you won't succeed. Crystal suggests your budget (starting off) should be $20.00 per person per week. I am adding an extra $10.00 to that to make it $50.00! If you are wanting to cut down costs on groceries you need to check out her blog! I am loving the video series and I am excited for the next lesson this week.

I'm sure this will be a long process since I'm just getting started but I will make sure to keep ya' updated as I succeed or fail at my mission to cut our grocery budget. Today, I'm actually making a grocery list and I'm going to the bank to get out the cash for June's grocery budget. One thing Crystal recommends is to get out the monthly money for your groceries and put it in an envelope. This way you have a little freedom if you need to go over budget one week. Since it's not June yet I'm trying to spend less than $50.00 this week because after adding up what I've already spent this month it's way over my new budget but I still need a few items (milk, bread, lemons, etc) that I simply cannot go without for another week.

If any of you are "extreme couponers" or have any money saving tips I would LOVE to hear them!

2 comments:

We have started watching Extreme Couponing too and have been trying to cut back on our grocery bill. "Living Well Spending Less" also has a great beginner's guide, but I'll definitely check out Money Saving Mom. I can see how to save and cut costs on prepared foods but I still need to work on saving on produce... best of luck, keep us updated :)